After losing majority,pressure mounts on Berlusconi to quit

No less than the future of the euro and Europe is at risk,Berlusconi has said,playing on a national sense of responsibility to rein in his detractors.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy won a budget vote in Parliament on Tuesday but the tally showed that he no longer has the support of the majority,a huge humiliation that raised the pressure on him to resign in the face of an escalating debt crisis that has hobbled Greece,threatens Italy and could infect the rest of Europe.

The budget vote came hours after Umberto Bossi,a key ally in Berlusconis centre-right coalition,publicly asked him to step aside for the sake of the country,the euro zones third-largest economy and a new epicentre of a crisis that has raised investor anxiety in markets around the world.

Bossi asked the prime minister to relinquish his post in favour of Angelino Alfano,the secretary of Berlusconis Peoples of Liberty Party. Berlusconis coalition received 308 votes in favour of passing the bill,but 321 lawmakers did not vote a clear sign that Berlusconi no longer has a majority, said Pier Luigi Bersani,the leader of the opposition Democratic Party. He also called on the prime minister to immediately hand in his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano.

Let the president find a solution,we will do our part, Bersani said. Expressing alarm about Italys rapidly rising borrowing costs,a reflection of investor fears over the countrys economic future,he said: We all know that Italy runs the real risk of not being able to access the financial markets in the next few days.

The vote came after yields on 10-year Italian government bonds the price demanded by investors to loan Italy money approached 7 per cent,the highest levels since the adoption of the single euro currency 10 years ago and a far cry from the 0.3 per cent that Germany pays.

Berlusconi had said earlier that he would decide his political future based on the outcome of the vote,a routine verification of the 2010 budget. The vote had taken on immense political importance for the prime minister after the defection in recent days of a number of lawmakers in his party.

Still,by late afternoon,Berlusconi had given no indication what course of action he was preparing to take. The prime minister had reiterated repeatedly in recent days that the coalition must stick together to pass a series of austerity measures that will placate the financial markets that have targeted Italys financial vulnerabilities,just as they have done in Greece,the euro zones other crisis-ridden member. No less than the future of the euro and Europe is at risk,Berlusconi has said,playing on a national sense of

responsibility to rein in his detractors.

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But critics said Berlusconi was among the chief reasons for the financial attacks on Italy. The prime minister,who is on trial for corruption,tax fraud and paying for sex with a minor,has worn his credibility,they say. And now,he has shown he does not have the backing to push through measures that are required of Italy to remedy its financial ills.ELISABETTA POVOLEDO